30 days wild Day Two- making space for wildlife in the garden

Day 2 of 30 days wild started off suitably wild, with high winds and heavy rain all night long and into this morning. Popping into the garden to right an overturned planter this morning, the world smelt different, rich, earthy and damp. Our house rabbit, Buttercup, stuck her nose out of the door behind me to sniff the ear before retreating in disgust at the damp. Stuck in a queue of traffic on my way to work this morning I took time to notice the different shapes of grass growing in the verge, and the different shapes of leaves blowing around in the hedge.

On my lunchtime walk to pick up a sandwich I took time to smell the freshly emerged elderflower. Sweet, light and very summery. I’ll be picking elderflowers later in the week, for a summery wild cocktail.

Elderflowers on my lunchtime walk

I also searched the charity shop for a dishes to help make my garden more friendly for butterflies and bees later in the challenge. I also spent some time contacting my local council and Surrey Wildlife Trust to try to book on some wild events for later in the month. Just waiting to hear back that there are places available- keeping my fingers crossed!

This afternoon at work in an idle moment, I gazed out the window and watched red kites soaring on the thermals, circling up into the sky. At one time I could see six red kite from my desk, as well as jackdaws and gulls, enjoying the blustery weather. This challenge is not necessarily going to help my productivity!

Arriving home this evening I decided that it was time to pay some attention to adding some more space for wildlife in the garden. Our garden is small, only 8x10m, with a shed, patio, path and three guinea pig taking up space. Despite this, we have a small pond, a tree, a wood pile, and plenty of wildflowers. We even have a nettle patch in a sunny spot, where small tortoiseshells have laid their eggs over the last couple of years. I’m currently trying to add a small wildflower meadow, so my first job was to check how it was coming along:

The plants are beginning to come up in my mini meadow

I was soon distracted by the bees in the garden, who seemed especially drawn to the sticky tree sap this evening, although they had clearly been foraging, as they had brightly coloured trousers of pollen. The foxgloves are just coming out and the bees love them, as well as the alliums and mint. Later in the year the lavender will be buzzing with life.

My husband added a roosting spot for small birds, and I put out some grain for the birds, and cleaned out and refilled the bird’s water and the bird bath, looking forward to seeing them in use.

A good day 2, hope the weather is less wild tomorrow. We’re finishing off our day, being inspired by Springwatch again, I think we’ll be making a bumblebee home with a plant pot this weekend.